Panasonic will release the LF-BD371JD SATA Blu-ray Burner this September 13th. This internal drive burns Blu-ray discs at the speed of 8x and features an 8MB buffer. The LF-BD371JD will also support formats DVD-RAM (5x), DVD-R (16x), DVD-R DL (8x), DVD-RW (6x), CD-R (48x), CD-RW(24x). The cost will be $386.
Tags: Blu-ray Drives, LF-PB371JD, Panasonic
Not to be outdone by Buffalo’s pair of 8x Blu-ray burners, I-O has announced their own 8x Blu-ray burner. The BRD-SP8 will be available in either black or white, and is a SATA internal drive that will burn BD-R discs at a brisk 8x speed. As we mentioned before, 8x BD-R discs are yet to be made available but good competition never hurt anyone.
The BRD-SP8 will be available in Japan for approximately $358. An exact release date has not yet been announced.
Tags: Blu-ray Drives, BRD-SP8, I-O
MCD Technologies, LLC announced the immediate availability of its Blu-ray recordable drive for PowerMac and Mac Pro Monday.
It is the first MCE Blu-ray drive that is natively recordable with Mac OS X 10.5.2 or later and can record data directly from the Finder with no additional software required. The MCE 6x Blu-ray recordable drive is capable of burning to BD-R media up to 6x, to DVD ± R media at up to 16X, to CD-R media at up to 40X, can read HD DVD-ROM media, and is LightScribe compatible.
The drive comes with instructions and is user installable on Apple PowerMacs and Mac Pros. Software is also included that allows Macs running Boot Camp to access the drive with Windows XP.
The drive for a Mac Pro or Power Mac G4/G5 running Mac OS X 10.4 or higher is available now for $499 while an external FireWire/USB 2.0 option is $750. Additionally it can be purchased with Toast and the HD/BD plug-in for an additional $100 or with Adobe Premier Pro CS3 with Encore for $1300.
Tags: Blu-ray Drives, Blu-ray News, MCE
HP is giving it’s Pavilion DV Series consumer laptop line a face-lift for the first time since 2006. The entire line features Blu-ray drives, HD Tuners, webcams, fingerprint readers and built-in 3G internet which should appease feature hungry consumers. The black and white notebooks will all have invisible “magic chrome” controls that light up and become fully interactive upon power up.
The newly redesigned line will include three models, the dv4, dv5, and dv7 which come with 14.1″, 15.4″, and 17″ displays respectively. All three will feature an AMD or Intel option and come with Windows Vista with no option for Windows XP announced at this time.
The dv4 will offer up to a maximum 320GB hard drive and 3 USB ports. Its base price will be from $800 (AMD) to $1000 (Intel). The dv5 will have 4 USB ports, an NVIDIA graphics card, with a base price of $700 (AMD) to $900 (Intel). Lastly, the dv7 will have multi-channel audio with subwoofer, 4 USBs, ATI and NVIDIA graphics cards, with a hard drive up to 640GB. The base price will start at $950 (AMD) to $1230 (Intel).
The dv5 will be released this month, the dv7 following in July, and the dv4 in September.
[Gizmodo]
Tags: Blu-ray Drives, Blu-ray Laptops, Blu-ray News, HP, HP Pavilion, HP Pavilion DV, Magic Touch
Gee, we didn’t see this one coming. Almost as fast as we told you about the latest rumor that the Xbox 360 would be getting a Blu-ray drive, Microsoft’s Robbie Bach denied those reports in an interview with SFGate for the umpteenth time. Bach believes customers are not yet willing to pay the extra money for something they don’t see as a marginal improvement over DVD. Oh well, we just think it’s a matter of time until they change their mind to Blu. In the meantime 360 owners will have to be content with HD downloads on Xbox Live Marketplace.
Tags: Blu-ray Drives, Blu-ray News, Xbox 360
It looks like all those rumors about Microsoft delivering a Blu-ray drive for the Xbox 360 might finally come true tomorrow. A tipster told CrunchGear that Microsoft is going to announce the Blu-ray drive for the Xbox 360 right before Apple’s annual WWDC, in an attempt to upstage Steve Job and his keynote.
The tipster wrote the following.
I‘ve got a close friend who works at Microsoft, previously with the HD-DVD division and now in the E&D division (Xbox, zune). I’m told MS will upstage Apple with a Monday 9am PDT announcement (1 hour before WWDC) via press release that the Xbox 360 will get Blu-Ray before Christmas. Price was “under the current Elite”, but i could get any more details.
If this indeed true, it’ll put to rest the countless rumors surrounding Xbox 360’s Blu-ray drive. It seems like the natural step for them to take now that HD-DVD is nothing more than a distant memory and Blu-ray is here to stay. Both a system with a Blu-ray drive and an add-on for the Xbox 360 would no doubt boost sales for Blu.
Tags: Blu-ray Drives, Blu-ray News, Xbox 360
SonyNEC Optiarc, a joint collaboration between Sony and NEC, predicted that Blu-ray drives for PCs could go below the $100 mark by the end of 2008. Internal Blu-ray drives, capable of reading Blu-ray discs, which could do a lot for consumer adoption of the format.
PC Blu-ray burners, capable of writing to Blu-ray discs, will be in the $150-$200 price region. Notebook Blu-ray drives could also drop to the $150 level. These lower prices will make the format more accessible to computer manufacturers as long as customer demand keeps growing. Those wanting to add Blu-ray drives to their existing systems will have a more affordable option to do so.
Tags: Blu-ray Drives, Blu-ray News, NEC, Sony, SonyNEC
The BE06 6x Blu-ray burner is now available along with two internal models, the GBC-H20L and GBW-H20L that also burn at 6x. This comes a few weeks after the LG BE06 made its middle east debut as the world’s fastest Blu-ray burner. All three drives have SecurDisc capabilities and LightScribe technology, burning BD-Rs at 6x and BD-REs at 2x.
The BEO6 external USB 2.0 drive has an MSRP of $429.95, while the GBH-H20L and GBW-H20L are $199.95 and $279.95.
Tags: BE06, Blu-ray Burners, Blu-ray Drives, Blu-ray Movies, GBH-H20L, GBW-H20L, LG, LG BE06, LG Electronics, LG GBH-H20L, LG GBW-H20L
Asustek plans to launch the Essentio CS5110, part of their Eee Station series, at Computex. The small multimedia desktop PC will have a Blu-ray drive that will read and write high definition digital video as an option. The mini-PCs will come in white or black, which is standard to the series, and feature Intel Core 2 Duo microprocessors with dedicated graphics card. Other specs include a 250GB hard drive, 802.11n Wi-Fi, an NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT and a wireless remote for use with home theaters.
Prices will range from $657 to $1,642 and the optional Blu-ray drive will bump it up to at least $1315, an Asustek representative said.
[PC World]
Tags: Asus, Asus Eee, Asus Essentio CS5110, Asustek, Blu-ray Drives, Blu-ray News, CS5110, Essentio CS5110
LaCie unveiled a new Blu-ray burner capable of burning discs at 4x, double the speed of the previous model. It is an external drive that writes to single-layer media via Firewire or USB 2.0. The LaCie drive is enclosed in a durable d2 aluminum casing and features ultra quiet operation. It burns onto 25GB and 50GB BD-R and BD-RE discs as well as standard CD and DVD media. The dual-interface Blu-ray burner is $650 and available from LaCie directly or authorized dealers.
Tags: Blu-ray Drives, d2, LaCie, LaClie d2
